“No! I’m…” Amelia stopped and took a deep breath. “It was a surprise to hear him mention it, but ultimately, it was refreshing to talk to someone openly about that.”
Lizzie understood the sentiment very well, but still chastised herself for betraying her friend’s confidence so unthinkingly.
“I wonder what it would be like not having to always worry about saying the right thing,” Elinor said and then shook her head immediately. “Best not to even think about it.”
Chapter 14
“Do my ears deceive me, Lady Elizabeth, or has Corporal Harding just reserved two dances with you? Oh my,” Violet exclaimed as she dramatically fanned herself.
She reminded Elizabeth so much of Isabella in that moment.
“Yes, a quadrille and a waltz. I hope your ball will be particularly auspicious for me,” Elizabeth replied conspiratorially behind her own fan.
“You deserve all the happiness in the world,” her kind hostess said. “He seems like a good man.”
“I hope he is. It’s difficult to recognise one when you’ve met so few of them,” Elizabeth said without thinking.
Before she could regret it, Lady Violet nodded.
“In a way, I know what you mean. I wanted a marriage different from my parents’, but not everything that was unlike it was necessarily good.”
“How did you make your choice?”
“I let my heart make it for me,” Violet smiled as her eyes sought out her husband in the crowd.
The Marquess was the tallest man in most rooms, so that made the task easier.
“What if your heart says nothing?”
“Then you wait until it does.”
Elizabeth didn’t feel like she had the luxury of taking the time to listen to her heart. She was eager to meet her brother’s expectations, have a successful Season, get married, and start living under a new name. Ever since she’d learned that her mother had secretly registered her in the parish under the nameElizabeth Hawkins, she detested it. The name hadn’t been given freely by her father, and she wanted to be rid of it.
Elizabeth Harding,she mentally tried it on.Not bad. Same initials.
She wanted to laugh at her silliness. Initials were the last thing she was considering in her quest for a husband. Kindness, integrity, honour – those were the qualities that appealed to her the most and the Corporal seemed to possess all of them. Besides, since he wasn’t really part of theTon,Elizabeth hoped that meant he’d be less likely to keep a mistress.
“Marchioness.” Duke Talbot interrupted her musings as he bowed to both women. “Miss Hawkins.”
“Duke Talbot,” Violet replied, “how good of you to grace us with your presence.”
Lizzie immediately noted that her voice was warm and sincere as she spoke to him, unlike both of her sisters’ had been in the past.
“I wouldn’t dream of missing a ball at the Radcliffe’s. What would my late father say!”
Violet turned to Elizabeth. “His Grace’s late father was a good friend of my husband’s late father.”
“They were the best of friends,” Talbot said sadly.
Elizabeth wanted to ask whether that meant that the Marquess and Duke Talbot had played together as children, but she thought better of it since the question seemed too personal.
Who are his friends?She wondered. She’d seen himaroundmany people, but she didn’t know their level of intimacy.
“I hope you will both do me the honour of dancing with me?” he offered.
“I shall put you down for the last reel. As for Lady Elizabeth, I don’t know whether she has any dances left on her card; I'm afraid Corporal Harding might have claimed them all!” Violet teased, and Elizabeth, for some reason, didn’t like that Talbot was witnessing it.
“I have the second waltz available,” she said shyly.
